Talk to the Veterans Crisis Line now
U.S. flag
An official website of the United States government
Veterans Benefits and Health Care About VA Find a VA Location

VA Health Systems Research

Go to the VA ORD website
Go to the QUERI website

HSR Citation Abstract

Search | Search by Center | Search by Source | Keywords in Title

Veterans' distress related to participation in a study about detainee abuse.

Gariti KO, Sadeghi L, Joisa SD, Holmes WC. Veterans' distress related to participation in a study about detainee abuse. Military medicine. 2009 Nov 1; 174(11):1149-54.

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.    Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions


Abstract:

Unintended consequences of participating in research studies are not well characterized, particularly in veterans who are frequent study participants. Our objective, then, was to assess the rate of and variables associated with distress resulting from veterans'' participation in a study on a sensitive subject. Veterans Administration (VA) hospital outpatients were administered questionnaires with three increasingly severe scenarios of a U.S. soldier abusing a detainee. Distress--upset requiring clinical intervention--was assessed, as were sociodemographic characteristics, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and locus of control (LOC). Three hundred fifty-one veterans participated. Forty-three (12%) became distressed. Modeling indicated distress was associated with minority status (odds ratio [OR] = 5.72, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.59, 20.58), PTSD (OR = 2.66, 95% CI = 1.12, 6.29), and external LOC (OR = 6.27, 95% CI = 2.82, 13.90). Distress related to study participation was high in this veteran sample. Higher rates in some subgroups suggested that some individuals may not be able to accurately anticipate risk for harm in sensitive studies.




Questions about the HSR website? Email the Web Team

Any health information on this website is strictly for informational purposes and is not intended as medical advice. It should not be used to diagnose or treat any condition.